Doctor Says Fatty Foods Are Not to Blame for Heart Disease

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For decades, the medical community and the government have advised Americans to cut down on fatty foods to avoid heart disease. Now the tide is changing, with some experts recommending more fat and protein, and fewer carbohydrates, to help you stay heart healthy and avoid diabetes.

If you grew up in the 1950s or ‘60s, chances are you ate eggs and
bacon for breakfast, steak for dinner, and there was always butter on
the kitchen table. Fast forward to the 1980s; you probably switched your
diet to include a slew of low-fat products. If you are still clinging
to the belief that fatty foods cause heart disease and should be
avoided, you may want to think again. So says Dr. Larry Kaskel, a
lipidologist and medical director of Northwestern Wellness Center in
Libertyville, Ill.

Healthline sat down with Kaskel to find out whether fatty foods are actually beneficial and what Americans should be eating
and doing to prevent heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Pointing
out that for the past 60 years, saturated fat and cholesterol have been
linked to heart disease, Kaskel said, “There has been a steady
cornucopia of contradictory facts, yet this theory persists because of
some scientists' and doctors’ ambition, greed, and selection bias. When
doctors and researchers respond to scientific or technical evidence,
it’s usually in ways that justify their preexisting beliefs. They become
overly attached to their own hypotheses.”

We Don’t Need Carbs?

Faulting pharmaceutical companies, large agricultural firms, trade associations,
and the government for promoting carbohydrates, Kaskel said the result
has been an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. “We’re not eating what we
should be eating, which is saturated fat and proteins. We really don’t
need any carbs in our diet. The human body requires zero carbohydrates
to function. It’s nothing new that excessive carbs cause Type 2
diabetes, which is the most prevalent [type of diabetes]. If you
restrict carbs and replace them with fat and protein, you can reverse
and cure diabetes, and you don’t even need to be on medications,” said
Kaskel.

Consumers are confused, Kaskel said, because “they believe the lie. They are still afraid of fat. They don’t know
what to do. They are paralyzed by all the data out there. They think,
well, I’ve been told fat is bad for me, so I can’t eat fat. What’s left?
Carbs.”

Avoid Cereals

According
to Kaskel, all cereals are unhealthy, even oatmeal, which he says can
spike your blood sugar levels. “Our breakfast should be like any other meal we eat,
which is one of fat, protein, and minimal carbs. You can have an omelet
with veggies, a piece of chicken, or roast beef with veggies,” he said.

People
who aren’t obese should eat what they want, said Kaskel, but he
suggested that obese people should switch their diet to one that is
predominantly fat and protein in order to lose weight. “It’s the carb
that drives the weight gain. Whenever you eat a carb, your body releases
a hormone called insulin. Insulin tells your body to store whatever
came in as fat. Lock it away; don’t access it. As long as you keep
eating carbs, you will release insulin; you will store it as fat. Once
you stop eating carbs, your body will start burning your fat stores and
you will lose weight,” he said.

Kaskel went on to say that Americans need
to be reprogrammed. "We need to reboot them and get them out of this
cult mentality that fat is bad for them, and tell them their
grandparents and great grandparents were eating butter, bacon, eggs, and
lard, and they weren’t dying from heart disease. They weren't obese and
they weren’t diabetic.

Moderation is
key with everything in life. We don’t know how to moderate in this
country. We’re very extremist. When anything says low fat, the fat is
replaced with more carbohydrates so you are basically screwing up
everybody by eating low-fat," Kaskel said. "There is no reason to pick low-fat foods.
The only reason people do that is they think if they eat fat they will
get fat, but that is incorrect.”

Emphasizing that a safe amount of
carbs is the least amount that you need, Kaskel noted that some doctors
say if you do a heavy workout you can have some carbs after the
exercise. But, he added, "Otherwise you shouldn't really be eating
carbs. A safe amount, in my opinion, is less than 75 grams a day, which
comes out to 19 teaspoons a day, which is still an enormous amount of
sugar."

What Should We Eat?

Kaskel
recommended a diet in which 60 percent of calories come from fat, 20
percent from protein, and 20 percent from carbs. If you are diabetic or
obese, he advises 60 percent from fat, 35 percent from protein, and five
percent from carbs. “Again, use moderation," he said. "Butter is not the enemy.
Fat is not the enemy. Saturated fat is not the enemy.”

If you do
drink alcohol, do so in moderation, said Kaskel. In addition to drinking
causing problems at home and at work, he cautioned that wine contains a
lot of sugar. “You will have to cut back on the other carbs if you want
to stay thin," he advised.

Kaskel went on to say that exercise
alone isn't going to make you lose weight. "You’d have to be extremely
excessive and extreme in your exercise, which I don’t think is healthy. A
healthy amount is 15 minutes a day of doing something where you break a
sweat,” he said.

Kaskel concluded, "We've had it backwards for 50 years – telling people to eat low fat when we really should have been saying eat low carb. We’re
almost at the point where the tide is changing. People should start
looking at food labels for the amount of sugar and stop focusing on the
fat content. If you look at the carbohydrates and try to keep your carb
levels below 75 grams a day, you should not get obese; and if you are
obese, you will lose weight, you’ll be able to reverse your diabetes,
and get off of many of your medications.”